868 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 28 
FARMERS’ CLUB 
[Every query must be accompanied by 
the name and address of the writer to in¬ 
sure attention. Before asking a question, 
please see whether it is not answered in 
our advertising columns. A.sk only a few 
questions at one time. Put questions on a 
separate piece of paper.] 
Cheapening the Horse Ration. 
What can be fed to cheapen the ration 
for a horse now that oats and corn are so 
high in price? 
I know of no grain for a driving horse 
or one that you wish to keep in good 
condition for driving in the Spring, that 
. can equal good clean oats. I have some¬ 
times fed a mixed ration of oats, cracked 
corn and bran, equal parts by weight, 
but would not advise the feeding of this 
to a valuable road horse that one want¬ 
ed to keep in good condition for present 
or future road work. My experience has 
been that road drivers do not stick for 
the little extra expense of oats and good 
care if their horses only show it when 
returned to them in the Spring. If you 
have a friend come to visit you, you do 
not mind the extra expense of good liv¬ 
ing; so let it be with the horse, one of 
man’s best friends. The best feed is 
none too good for him. e. c. ryder. 
Middlebury, Vt. 
We have always fed oats and bran, 
and continue to feed the same. We be¬ 
lieve that the price of other grain has 
advanced in harmony with oats, there¬ 
fore there could be no economy in sub¬ 
stituting other feeds in the place of oats. 
In this State and in other corn-raising 
States the farmers feed principally corn 
to their horses, because u is cheaper 
than oats, and horses can be kept more 
economically. Corn costs more per 
bushel, but it goes very much further, 
so that the same money invested in corn 
as in oats will last longer. We do not 
feed corn, because we think oats much 
better. In regard to feeding brewer’s 
grains we have had no experience, hut 
we do mix a little oil meal with our 
bran and oats. The horses do not like 
the oil meal quite so well as they do the 
feed without it, but after they become 
used to eating it we think it is a good 
ration to mix with our other feed in 
small quantities. m’laughlin bros. 
Columbus, Ohio. 
In my experience of feeding I have 
not yet found anything to take the place 
of oats for horses that are working hard, 
or are being driven fast. It is quite an 
easy matter to feed horses merely to 
winter them without much grain of any 
kind in this country, where we have lots 
of roots. Turnips are worth about 10 
cents per bushel and carrots 12^ cents. 
I feed hay per day about 24 pounds, 10 
cents; turnips and carrots, one peck, 2% 
cents;oats, four pounds, six cents; bran, 
two pounds, eight cents; total 20% 
cents. This amount will winter a 1,500- 
pound horse so that it will keep in fairly 
good condition. I do not approve of 
feeding much hran to driving horses or 
horses that are working hard; I can get 
better results from one pound of oats 
than two pounds of bran as regular feed 
for working horses. I consider bran 
more of a regulator than food. I have 
never tried distiller’s grains, but have 
tried refuse of mills, such as mill seeds 
and oat dust, but don’t consider it good 
horse feed. thos. skinner. 
Mitchell, Ontario. 
New England Apple Questions. 
D. .4.. K., Waitsfield, Tt. —1. How can we 
prevent bitter rot in apples? 2. How can 
we prevent the entire destruction of our 
apple crop by the Apple maggot or Rail¬ 
road worm? I can plant, fertilize, prune, 
spray, graft, thin, pick, pack and market 
to my satisfaction and that of my custo¬ 
mers, but all to no purpose if I cannot 
conquer above troubes. 
Ans. —1. Bitter rot (Gloeosporium) 
may be held in check by spraying syste¬ 
matically with Bordeaux Mixture, fol¬ 
lowed hy the ammoniacal solution of 
copper carbonate, or by sulphide of po¬ 
tassium (one-half ounce to one gallon 
water) toward the close of the season. 
Diseased leaves and fruits should be 
gathered and burned. This treatment 
may not prevent all trouble, but will 
certainly be found helpful. 2. The Apple 
maggot or “Railroad worm’’ (Trypeta 
pomonella) is the most serious pest the 
orchardists of New England have to 
meet. The only satisfactory preventive 
measure is to destroy infested fruit. For 
this reason many growers find the use 
of hogs or sheep in the orchard a very 
great advantage. Clean culture is ad¬ 
visable and refuse from cider mills and 
fruit cellars should be burned. 
Maine Exp. Sta. w. m. munson. 
Is Beet Sugar Valuable ? 
H. E. 3/., Penn Yan, N. Y .—A few days ago 
1 had occasion to buy a barrel of sugar. 
As beets are grown here for sugar I want¬ 
ed to buy beet sugar and help our own 
home industry. One dealer said: “I would 
not use beet sugar, because it stinks.” He 
did not say w’hat it smelled of, but the 
sample shown at the Pan-American tasted 
and looked just like cane sugar. Another 
dealer said beet sugar would sweeten only 
half as far as cane sugar. He claimed he 
had tried it by making syrup from the 
same quantities of each, and the beet syrup 
had only one-half the body of syrup made 
from cane sugar. How is this? Are we 
raising sugar we cannot use? If beet sugar 
is as good as cane sugar these grocers 
should take a lesson in political economy, 
and sell goods grown at home rather than 
imported sugars. 
Ans. —There is something the matter 
with those grocers. Refined sugar from 
the beet and from the cane is chemically 
the same. Each has the same sweeten¬ 
ing power. What is known as glucose 
is a substance made from corn, and it 
has much less sweetening power than 
the sugar from cane or beets. The un¬ 
refined sugar from beets is not equal to 
that from cane, but when refined the 
sugars are fully equal. A large propor¬ 
tion of the sugar used in this country is 
beet sugar—coming from Germany and 
France. American refined beet sugar is 
as good as any sugar made in the world. 
Plum Stock, Evergreens and Wind-breaks. 
O. M., Johnstown, Pa.—L What Is meant by 
"Lombard stock?” Is it Lombard plum 
trees raised from seeds of Lombard plum? 
2. What are the best evergreens to plant 
for wind-breaks? 3. What are the best 
quick growing trees for wdnd-breaks? 4. 
How are Lombardy poplars propagated? 6. 
On our heavy western Pennsylvania soils, 
which are somewhat rocky, can we suc¬ 
cessfully use the Cutaway disk plow and 
disk harrow? 
Ans. —1. The Lombard plum reproduces 
itself fairly well from seeds, but seed¬ 
lings are too scarce to be used exten¬ 
sively for stocks. It makes a splendid 
tree for top-working witk otker plums, 
but when used for that purpose is usual¬ 
ly grown in the ordinary manner by 
budding or grafting on the Horse plum, 
Myrobalan, or some other common 
stock. 2. The Norway spruce and Siber¬ 
ian arbor vitae are the most useful ever¬ 
greens for wind-breaks in your latitude. 
The American arbor vitae or T\niite cedar 
is cheaper and a more rapid grower than 
the Siberian species, but is more brittle 
and open in growth. The native hem¬ 
lock makes the finest and handsomest 
of wind-breaks, but is too slow and difli- 
cult to establish for ordinary use. The 
basket worm Is often very destructive to 
the arbor vitaes, so that on the whole 
the Norway spruce planted in double or 
triple rows would be the safest ever¬ 
green to use. 3. The Carolina poplar 
cut back to branch near the soil is prot)- 
ably the best quick-growing deciduous 
tree for the purpose. Other suitable 
trees are the Soft or Silver maple and 
the Golden willow, Salix vitellina, but 
both should be cut back and kept closely 
pruned to keep the wind from near the 
soil surface. 4. Lombardy poplars are 
usually grown from hardwood cuttings 
In the same manner as currants or wil¬ 
lows. The cuttings are taken in Fall 
or early Winter, made into bundles and 
buried in the ground until 'Spring. They 
are then set in rows in well-prepared 
soil, the rows being far enough apart 
for horse cultivation, and the cuttings 
about 10 inches apart in the row. In 
two or three years they will be large 
enough to transplant. 5. We have not 
been able to use either disk or Cutaway 
successfully on very rocky soil. Where 
the stones are small and round the tools 
do fair work, though the teeth and edges 
of the disks are easily chipped and dull¬ 
ed. On soil covered with flat Stones the 
tools will not answer. In our experi¬ 
ence the spring-tooth harrows are bet¬ 
ter for such locations. 
More About Mr. Hitchings’s Orchards. 
L. C. S., Albion, N. Y.—l have been greatly 
interested in reading of G. G. Hitchings’s 
success with apple trees in sod, and would 
like him to explain a few things. Does he 
ever plow or cultivate the ground, and 
what kind of grass does he raise on it? 
Does he mow the grass for a mulch, or in 
what way does he add fertility to the soil? 
Does he use chemicals, and If so, what? 
He speaks on page 802 of “nourishing the 
buds during Summer and Fall.” What 
does he mean by this expression, and how 
is it done? An explanation of his methods 
would be of Interest to many In this 
locality. 
Ans. —If you have straw or any vege¬ 
table matter to mulch trees when first 
set to keep them from drying out, don’t 
cultivate. If you have no available 
mulching material, then cultivate up and 
down the rows a distance of four feet 
each side of the row, thus forming the 
eartn mulch to hold moisture. Keep up 
this cultivation until grass growing be¬ 
tween the trees is large enough to mow; 
then place this grass around the trees. 
Continue this practice of mulching with 
grass each year, gradually extending as 
trees grow for 10 years; then let lie 
where cut. You will find at this time 
that you have accumulated a good sup¬ 
ply of humus, and by its gradual decay 
plant food is furnished in suflBcient 
quantity for good annual crops of fruit 
without the addition of any other fer¬ 
tilizer. In a young orchard just set seed 
with equal parts of Red clover, Timothy 
and Red-top; in an old orchard with 
Red-top alone, and this humus supply 
for old orchards must be helped out by 
the addition of manure, especially if 
previously cultivated. The clover in 
young orchards improves the texture of 
the soil, the Red-top finally takes its 
place and makes a fine thick aftermath 
like a carpet, which protects the roots 
from excessive heat or cold. You have 
probably noticed that manure applied 
for corn on sod ground in the Fall was 
more effective than a similar amount ap¬ 
plied immediately before planting in the 
Spring. I am of the opinion that the 
bacterial action of the soil was encour¬ 
aged by this practice. The same thing 
occurs by a mulch in an orchard during 
the Fall. You are releasing plant food 
by aid of these bacteria at a time your 
tree needs it most to give strength and 
vitality to the fruit huds, so that they 
may be able to set and perfect a crop 
of fruit the following year. By examin¬ 
ing the soil under the mulch we find the 
feeding roots close to the surface. They 
appear very healthy and vigorous, and I 
believe they are the ones that are doing 
the tree the most good, and should be 
nourished and fed by decaying plant 
food and not mutilated by a cultivator. 
Last Summer I observed that many of 
the orchards along the line of the rail¬ 
road from Buffalo to Niagara Falls look¬ 
ed unhealthy. I think it is a case of 
cultivator disease. 
GRANT G. HITCHINGS. 
The 
SqfU 
JNG' 
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combined. Here’s a partial list: _ 
Ilubbnrd, Marblehead, Victor, Warren 
Uutman, Chestnutand Golden Bronze. ‘ 
Our annual catalogue of Vegetable and 
I'lower seed sent Free. 
If you want the purest 
grass seed sold in the 
U. S. trv ours. 
J.J.H.GREGORY 
&S0N. 
iln Marblehead, 
Mass. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-T. and you will get a quick reply ano 
"asquare deal.” See our guarantee 8th page. 
Burpee’s | 
Farm Annual 
for 1902 
Our Complete Illustrated Catalogue of J 
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Mailed FREE to all Planters. 
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potatoes—Bovee,Carman.Cobbler,Harve8t,6Week8 
I Ohio,Rose,Th’bred. 85 kinds. C.W.Ford,Fishers,N.Y. 
HUTMTAUQ—Selected Seed. Price-List Free, 
rU I n I UbV E. M. MARVIN, Sun, Mich. 
iSDllfCC VTew Early YeUow n|;j|n|| 
UnRffCd FREESTONE rCAull 
Price list free. W. J. GRAVES. Originator, Perry, O. 
nnM DAIII strawberry, the flower of 
UUin I HUL the world; 6 berries filled a quart 
box last June. List free. T. C. Kevitt, Athenla, N..1. 
TPCCQ I—Wholesale Prices, $1 worth up. Send 
IllLLO ■ to G.C. STONE’S Wholesale Nurseries. 
Dansville, N. Y., for 80-pp. Catalogue. Established 
35 years. Secure varieties now; pay in Spring. 
Trees, Seeds, Plants. 
Furnas' Seeds are Tested Seeds. 
Catalogue Free. Send for It now. 
T. C. FURNAS & CO., Sheridan Ind. 
SUCCEED WHERE 
Largest Nursery. OTHERS FAIL. 
Fruit Bock Free, Result of 76 years* expcrlenc*. 
NORTHERN-GROWN FRUIT TREES 
Best market varieties. Free from disease. All con¬ 
veniences for packing dealers’ orders. My prices as 
low as the lowest; my stock .isgood as the best. Write 
for free catalogue. Insiiuctive: Interesting. 
MAUTIN WAHL, Ml Gregory St.,Rochester, N.Y. 
Clenwood Nurseries 
Most complete assortment of choice 
Ornamental Trees, Shrubs and Vines. 
Send for Descriptive Illustrated Catalogue. 
THE WM. H. MOON CO., MORBI8VILLE, PA. 
60 miles from New York; 30 miles from Philadelphia. 
While 3 ’ou have the time to attend to 
it, and the Nur.series have a Full Stock 
to select from, make out your orders for 
Fruit Trees, and send direct to some re¬ 
liable Nursery for them. 
•Hundreds of our best Fruit Growers 
say, the best trees that they ever received 
came from Call’s Nurseries, Perry, (). 
Write them for Price List. 
Rogers Trees are Safe Trees. 
FRUIT 
The VALUE of my trees is De¬ 
monstrated by the Truth ot the va¬ 
riety. Order now. Get first choice. 
12 PEACH TIIKES, choice kinds. 
TREES 
mailed to any part United States, $1 18 plants MKRSEREAU BLACKBERRY, mail, II. Stock saved for 
you till Spring. Easy terms. For further information write me now. 
Cayuga Nur-eries. Established 1S47. H, S. WILEY, CAYUGA, N. Y. 
THE! 
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STORRS 
etc., advertise themselves. The best always 
cheapest. Have hundred of car loads of 
Fruits and Ornamentals. 
40 acres of Hardy Roses. 44 greenhouses of 
Palms, Ficus, Fern, Roses, etc. Correspondence 
_ _ _ solicited. Catalogue free. 48 years. lOiXlacres. 
HARRISON CO.. Painsville. O. 
HIGH GRADE FERTILIZERS 
OUR PRICES LOW. QUALITY PURE. 
Write for Memorandum Book, Prices and Samples. 
The Scientific Fertilizer Co. pa. 
